Executive Summary

CVE-2026-27988 is a Local File Inclusion (LFI) vulnerability in the WordPress Equadio Theme versions up to and including 1.1.3. It allows unauthenticated attackers to exploit improper control of filename for include/require statements in PHP, enabling them to include and display local files from the target website.

This vulnerability falls under the OWASP Top 10 category A3: Injection, meaning it involves injecting malicious input to manipulate the application.

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Impact Analysis

Exploitation of this vulnerability can expose sensitive files on the target website, such as those containing database credentials.

This exposure could potentially lead to a complete database takeover depending on the website’s configuration.

Since the vulnerability requires no authentication to exploit, it poses a high risk and urgency for mitigation.

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Compliance Impact

I don't know

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Detection Guidance

[{'type': 'paragraph', 'content': 'This vulnerability allows unauthenticated attackers to include and display local files from the target website, which can be detected by monitoring for suspicious HTTP requests attempting to exploit Local File Inclusion (LFI).'}, {'type': 'paragraph', 'content': 'Common detection methods include inspecting web server logs for requests containing suspicious parameters that reference local files, such as those including directory traversal patterns (e.g., ../) or attempts to include sensitive files like /etc/passwd or configuration files.'}, {'type': 'paragraph', 'content': 'Example commands to detect potential exploitation attempts include:'}, {'type': 'list_item', 'content': 'Using grep to search web server access logs for suspicious LFI patterns: grep -iE "(\\.{2}/|etc/passwd|config)" /var/log/apache2/access.log'}, {'type': 'list_item', 'content': 'Using curl or wget to test if the site is vulnerable by attempting to include a local file (only in a controlled, authorized environment): curl "http://targetsite.com/?file=../../../../etc/passwd"'}, {'type': 'list_item', 'content': 'Monitoring for unusual error messages or file contents in HTTP responses that indicate local files are being included.'}] [1]

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Mitigation Strategies

Since no official patch is currently available for this vulnerability, immediate mitigation involves implementing the Patchstack mitigation rule designed to block attacks exploiting this Local File Inclusion flaw.

Users are strongly advised to apply this mitigation rule as soon as possible to protect their websites from unauthenticated attackers attempting to exploit the vulnerability.

Additionally, general best practices include restricting file inclusion functions, validating and sanitizing user inputs, and monitoring web traffic for suspicious activity.

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